Education gains will justify means

OPINION: On the face of it the recent changes to education seem reasonable.

There is to be more emphasis on reducing the number of illiterate New Zealanders and making parents more aware of how their children are doing in the basics.

Today Prime Minister John Key will unveil a nationwide push to improve standards in literacy and numeracy for primary and intermediate pupils.

Parents will be given clear reports on how their children are performing against the benchmarks, and apparently the Government is doing all it can to prevent it being turned into league tables for comparison. Well good luck with that.

But there is much to be said for emphasis on teaching people to read, write and do basic maths well.

Illiteracy is a huge problem for many people and our prisons are full of people who can't read or write. We have adult education programmes that do sterling work in trying to catch up with inadequacies in the education system, but far better that everyone comes out of the education process with these basic skills for living.

It is a cruel thing not to be able to read or write and a millstone for life.

The problem with what the government is trying to do is that it is inevitable some schools will come out better than others, and schools will be seen as successes or failures. Now while some will say tough, that's life, it is debatable whether that is good for the schools and the most important part – the children in them.

There is nothing wrong with asking schools to be accountable. But it can be very damaging when schools are pitted against each other.

And it would be wonderful if the inevitable league tables found a decile 1 school that was punching way above its weight and parents rushed to send their kids there.

The dissemination of such information has been opposed by both the Primary Teachers Union and the Principals Federation.

There has been some discussion on how the data gained from an assessment can be prevented from being turned into league tables, including using the Education Review office and having all reports being oral rather than written. It's also been suggested that no single list of every school's performance should be kept.

It's all getting slightly surreal.

If the government is going to bring in this system it will have to deal with the implications. The information will get out and someone will put all the strands together for comparison.

Hopefully the push to change the number of New Zealanders that can read and write will be worth any detrimental effect on struggling schools. Most recently we have seen the effect incorrect reporting can have on a school with a mistake made in a national newspaper about Mayfield Primary in Blenheim.

- The Marlborough Express

Newest First

Oldest First